Sonic Forces: the Novelization
by Descendant of Truth
Summary: When Sonic is captured and held prisoner by Dr. Eggman, the world slowly crumbles as Eggman's army, aided by the mysterious Infinite, takes over everything. Amy forms a resistance against Eggman's rule, but the war is hardly in their favor. Shadow, Metal Sonic, Zavok, and Chaos are working with Eggman and Infinite, but something isn't right about them. Nothing is right anymore.
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. All characters shown here are property of SEGA.**

 **Author's Notes: I was actually supposed to upload this a lot sooner, but I kept forgetting... whoops! Anyway, this is a rewrite/novelization of Sonic Forces, meaning that I'm taking my own spin on the story shown within the game. I'm adding new levels, cutscenes, changing dialogue and plot details, etc. all to make the Sonic story I was looking forward to!**

 **One thing to note is that I really do love what Sonic Forces gave us; I just wish it had done more! I don't hate the game by any means. This fanfiction was crafted out of the love I have for this franchise and to add/improve upon what the game didn't deliver. (Which, unfortunately, is a lot, in my opinion.)**

 **Without further ado, here's the first chapter!**

* * *

The room was made of cold metal, no windows to the outside world to be seen. Inside the vast room were rows upon rows of capsules, each containing a red, icosahedron jewel suspended in midair. All except for one, which held a figure almost indistinguishable in the dim lighting. Approaching this capsule was the mastermind behind the mass-production of these jewels: Dr. Eggman.

"Oh, Sonic. How I hate him." he found himself grumbling. "And all of that loathing has been focused into this invincible instrument of destruction!" he motioned to the figure in the capsule, his voice rising into a triumphant shout as he continued. "Every defeat, every humiliation at the hedgehog's hands will be returned a thousand-fold by my unstoppable creation!" With a low chuckle, he pushed aside one of his servant robots to take a better look at the figure he referred as his ultimate masterpiece.

"This is my dream come true," he said quietly. His voice rose once again, his constant change in tone displaying a man trying to keep his manic ecstasy in check and continuously failing. "With this, I can expand my Eggman Empire across the globe and take over the world!" With that declaration, he erupted into laughter. He truly seemed mad to anyone watching; in this case, his two servant robots, dubbed Orbot and Cubot, the former of which decided to speak up.

"I must say, you really outdid yourself this time, boss!" he exclaimed. "I wasn't sure you would be able to find a use for him after that stunt he pulled, but you surpassed all expectations!"

"Yeah, the boss really means business this time!" Cubot piped up. Eggman paused his laughter in order to respond, although he ignored Cubot's comment entirely.

"Oh, he's going to be plenty useful," he chuckled softly. "Now, let's go for a test run, shall we?"

* * *

There wasn't anything Sonic loved more in the world than running. He loved a lot of things the same amount as running, like his friends, relaxing days on the beach, and a wide variety of food (although chilidogs definitely stood out as his favorite), but there was nothing that could exceed the amount of love he had for running. Which was why he was spending today running across one of his favorite landmarks: Green Hill.

The place was a natural beauty to behold: bright green grass covered the ground where flowers and palm trees grew in abundance. Even the dirt was interesting to look at, with varying shades of light and dark brown arranged in a checkered fashion, as if it had been deliberate. If it was, Sonic had never bothered to find out.

It was sunny and warm on the best of days, casting the world in a bright glow, and Sonic was lucky enough to be there on those days more often than not. The wind that kicked up whenever he ran was especially fresh in a place like Green Hill, and breathing it in almost felt like breathing life itself.

So yes, this was one of his favorite places to run. And he would have continued doing just that if a voice hadn't suddenly spoken through the intercom he carried in his ear.

 _"Sonic! Do you read me?"_ It was the voice of his best friend, Tails, who was also the one who came up with the idea of wearing intercoms everywhere. Sonic wanted to be against the idea, but really, with the near-constant threat of Eggman's schemes, it was best to know when and where he struck before it got too severe.

Plus, Sonic was terrible when it came to bringing grocery lists.

"Loud and clear, buddy! What's the emergency?" he asked, leaping over a particularly large gap in the floor. Judging from the urgency in Tails' voice, he hadn't called for idle chit-chat.

" _Eggman's built a new army and it's storming through the city near Green Hill! We need you over here as soon as possible!"_ he exclaimed. At this news, he felt a mixture of concern for the innocent people being put in danger and amusement at the fact that Eggman had picked such a convenient location to launch his attack. As per usual with Sonic, he based his response on the latter.

"He sure makes it easy for me to stop his plans in their tracks, doesn't he?" he commented, before adding a quick, "Don't worry, Tails, I'm on my way!" There was no doubt in his mind that he would make it in time and stop Eggman's plan right then and there. Of course, since it was Eggman he was dealing with, he most likely had a few other tricks up his sleeve, but he had gotten past everything the doctor had thrown at him before. Now wasn't going to be any different.

He wasn't exactly surprised, though, when various robots pointing guns at him obscured his path. He did note the lack of the usual bright color schemes on these new minions, (an unfortunate development, in his opinion) but that did nothing to keep him from jumping into the air and launching himself at each and every one of them. One by one, his sharp quills tore through their hardened armor, leaving them as a pile of scrap on the ground before making his way further.

Rinse and repeat, the robots felt like they were being stationed everywhere. Robots in the air, robots on the ground, they were practically in formation to make his journey a little harder. Of course, they hardly succeeded in slowing him down; if anything, dodging their bullets and getting to blow them up made the trip all the more fun for Sonic. He actually found himself laughing as he took out a particularly large group of them, enjoying the brief seconds of a challenge they offered him to the fullest.

That was around the time he noticed a change in the environment. The lush green grass was quickly being replaced with sand, until no grass was visible at all in the sandy wasteland he had entered. But that wasn't right; there was never any sand in Green Hill. He wasn't sure what the purpose was, but he just knew Eggman was behind this.

"Okay, so Green Hill just got turned into Sand Hill… thanks a lot, Eggman, you've gone and messed up one of my favorite spots!" he remarked, talking to no one in particular. He made a mental note to ask Tails how to get rid of all this sand after he saved the city. He may have loved running with all his heart, but running on sand was a bit of an annoying challenge. There wasn't nearly as much in the way of traction, and when you're running at the speed of sound, that can be problematic.

Thankfully, he adjusted (albeit with some difficulty), but not before taking note of the giant robotic sand worm in the distance. It was making its way in and out of the ground as if it were in an actual desert, to which he could only groan in discontent. He didn't have time to deal with the giant sand worm right now, he had to get to Tails! So instead, he opted for making fun of it.

"Well, check out this piece of work! I guess things like that just crop up when your neighborhood is turned into a desert. Clean-up's gonna be such a chore." He complained, his sass being somewhat overruled by his distaste for the situation.

After running through a naturally occurring loop in the ground and destroying the last line of Eggman's robots, he had made it to his destination. The gate to the city was open, and he wasted no time rushing through it. What he saw upon entering the city was definitely concerning, though, more so than was standard for Eggman's initial attacks. There were practically rows of robots firing wherever and whenever they saw fit, fires had broken out in at least three different places that he could see, and buildings were already in the process of being leveled.

Still, it looked like he had just made it in time to stop the havoc before any permanent damage had been done, which was a relief. But he would feel a lot more relieved once those fires had been put out, the robots destroyed, and the people were safe.

Knowing there was no time to lose, he immediately ran towards the offenders with such ferocity and speed he was actually generating a wave of pure energy in front of him, as it always did whenever he performed a Boost (as he had taken to calling it).

This particular attack was one of the most useful in his vast arsenal of techniques he had picked up over the years, but it also had plenty of downsides. The wave it generated might have taken out huge crowds of enemies just by running into them, but he was going so fast that it was difficult to turn. He could still remember the pain from the bruises he got after attempting it the first few times and ended up crashing into just about everything. The other downside was that it was particularly exhausting if kept up for too long—a problem that he later found could be solved with the help of kind little aliens called Wisps.

As if on cue, a small batch of white Wisps came his way, gesturing wildly and making their high-pitched gibberish noises as if he could understand them. He slowed and gave them a smile and a wave.

"Hey there, little guys! Are you here to help me out?" he asked them. Sonic hadn't failed to notice that the Wisps always seemed ready to help him after their first encounter. They made more noises in response before flowing into him and transferring some of their strength to his.

"I'll take that as a 'yes!'" he remarked, making a mental note to learn how to speak Wisp after this was over and Boosting away yet again.

He tapped the com in his ear before speaking again. "I'm in the city, Tails! And making quite the show, I might add," he said, unable to suppress the smirk that crept up on his face.

" _Yeah, I can see the explosions from here. I'm leading a group of civilians to safety, but we're getting outnumbered fast. I can't fight them all and keep the people safe at the same time!"_ Tails urged, making it clear that he needed assistance without actually asking for help. (Sonic was convinced that was something Tails had picked up from him.)

"Don't worry, I'll be there soon! Just tell me where you are!" he said in response. There was no denying the concern that started bubbling up inside his chest at the thought of his best friend in the line of fire, unable to dodge lest someone else get injured, but he knew better than to let that get in his way. He was the fastest thing alive; if anyone could make it in time to help Tails, it was him.

" _I'm nearing the western perimeter of the city now. Hurry, I can't hold these things off for long!"_ he replied. Sonic didn't exactly have a compass on him to tell which way west was supposed to be, but he recognized this district as the northern one from the tour Tails had taken him on a few months before. If he thought that information would be useless then, he most certainly thought otherwise now.

"Alright, I'm heading your way!" he said, taking a left and leaping off the bridge he had been running along. The city might have been big and filled with robots, but Sonic had long since figure out how to maneuver situations like this. (The time he spent running from the government certainly came to mind.)

He used the placement of several airborne robots to his advantage and repeatedly destroyed them to make some more distance before dropping down like a rock onto the concrete, using the same force that propelled him midair to instead take him the ground quicker than gravity would approve of. Immediately, he took off again, bounding over any obstacles that came his way and not letting anything break his momentum. He had to get to Tails as soon as possible, to keep him and anyone else he was with out of harm's way.

 _There he is!_ He thought to himself upon reaching his destination. Sure enough, there was Tails and a small group of civilians, backed into a corner by multiple robots with no easy escape route. With a quick jump, he launched himself at one of the mechanical soldiers with such force it tore through the one next to it, repeating the action a couple times before landing. With a quick Boost, he blasted through the last of them and felt some of the tension lift from his shoulders. He turned around to address the small group of people he had just rescued.

"Everyone okay?" he asked, worried that someone might have gotten hurt while he was making his way over there. Thankfully, no one seemed to be injured. Most gave nods of confirmation while others gave a small cheer at their rescue.

"We are, thanks to you. Cutting it kind of close though, pal," Tails replied affectionately. Sonic offered him a shrug, finally feeling at ease enough to smirk.

"Yeah, well, you know me. That's just how I roll." He said, although his attention was quickly diverted to the large, annoyingly familiar floating mech that descended upon them. The Eggmobile, carrying the infamous Dr. Eggman himself. "Well, look who finally decided to show up! I'm not in the mood to drag this out, so let's finish this here and now, Eggman!" he yelled, decidedly wanting this to be over with as soon as possible. He had several acres of sand to clean up and an alien language to learn, he wasn't about to let Eggman of all people completely ruin the day for him and everyone else.

"It will be _your_ finish, Sonic," Eggman declared, "Behold the power of my ultimate masterpiece!"

Sonic had heard this speech more times than he could count, and frankly, it was getting boring. Which was why he simply shrugged with an exasperated expression before jumping into a spinning formation, planning to knock Eggman off his vehicle to assert control over the situation. (Which, in his mind, he already had, but he had to start this fight somewhere.) It would have worked quite nicely if something hadn't slammed into him while he was in midair.

He flipped out of formation and managed to land on his feet, using his hand to slow his skidding across the floor. When he came to a stop, he was able to get a look at whatever or whoever had just hit him. He would not like what he saw.

"Shadow?!" he exclaimed. "What are you..."

His feeling of innate betrayal was quickly replaced with confusion when he saw something strange going on with Shadow. He was surrounded by red and pink... static? That was all he could compare it to. It almost looked like he was glitching, if that were possible in real life. He couldn't make sense of it.

That wasn't the only thing that was weird. His posture was definitely the same as the Shadow he knew; standing up straight, arms crossed, frown firmly in place. But there was something about his eyes that unnerved him. His brow might have been furrowed into a glare, but his eyes looked empty. Like they weren't looking at anything, or were trying to see something but couldn't. It was eerie and filled Sonic with a sudden sense of concern for his friend (which he insisted they were, despite Shadow's protests).

"Shadow, what's wrong?" he asked. No answer. "Say something!" He pressed, growing more anxious by the second. He tried waving his hand in front of Shadow's face, but there was no response. Shadow wasn't moving or saying anything; all he did was blankly stare ahead at nothing.

"I don't get it. He's unresponsive," Tails noted, "but it's not like he's catatonic or anything; he was moving just fine before. And I'm picking up some _really_ weird readings from whatever that energy surrounding him is. It's scrambling my device's sensors!"

He heard what Tails was saying, but couldn't think of how to respond to it. _Whatever_ was going on with Shadow, he knew for certain that Eggman was responsible for it. That thought caused his blood to boil, and it definitely wasn't just concern like he had felt for Tails just minutes before. This was anger, stronger than he had felt that entire day.

"What have you done to him?!" He demanded, turning his attention back to the Doctor.

" _I've_ done nothing to him, hedgehog," Eggman smirked, sounding so smug that Sonic had to restrain himself from attacking him right then and there. "But he's far from your only problem at the moment."

A loud _thump_ behind him alerted him to the presence of a new arrival. He quickly turned around and was surprised to see none other than Zavok, a zeti from the Lost Hex that he had fought not too long before. He had the same weird glitches around him that Shadow did, his eyes just as empty.

"Zavok?! How are you still _alive?!_ " Sonic yelled. Zavok was supposed to be dead, burned in the volcano of the Lost Hex. He wasn't exactly unhappy with this development; he certainly never wanted to kill any of his enemies. He was glad, even, that the zeti were getting another chance at life. But that didn't explain _how_ , and Zavok was still an enemy. He had to keep his guard up, even if he was shocked and confused at what was happening.

"Oh, you'd be surprised at just how much a zeti can endure. Especially when he has as strong a motivator as revenge," Eggman explained deviously.

The roaring sound of an engine interrupted their conversation, and Sonic actually had to sidestep to the right in order to avoid getting crashed into by a chunk of metal. A chunk of metal which, evidently, turned out to be none other than Metal Sonic. He opened his mouth to make a comment about not seeing this particular robot in a while when he noticed that Metal Sonic had the same strange static around him that the others did. His eyes lacked any sort of pupil, which was normal for other robots but still looked weird on Metal, who always had the most believable eyes of any Eggman creation.

"Seems a bit redundant to use whatever _that_ is on your own robot," Sonic commented dryly, trying his best to remain calm.

"Sonic, look out!" Tails suddenly yelled, but without any indication of what direction to dodge, Sonic experienced only a split second of hesitation that resulted in him getting hit by an inexplicable wave of water. He felt panic strike through him, all attempts to keep his cool washing away with the water. A yell of surprise (and certainly _not_ fear) erupted from his lungs without his permission as the wave made contact and he scrambled to pick himself back up after it ceased. Eggman's laughter in the background wasn't helping things much.

When he stood back up, he discovered the source of the wave: Chaos, the creature that lived inside the Master Emerald. Who had destroyed Station Square before Sonic purified him as Super Sonic. Unsurprisingly, he had the same glitches around him as everyone else did, although his eyes looked no different. They were always solid green and unreadable. Sonic felt obliged to make a quip at this point.

"Man, Knuckles is gonna be so ticked when he finds out about this," he said, but somehow his heart just wasn't quite in it. Chaos wasn't too much of a problem on his own in this form, but Metal Sonic always gave him more trouble than Eggman's other robots, and having to fight both him, Chaos, and Zavok (and Shadow, if he ever intended on moving from that spot) all at once was definitely going to be more problematic than it was worth.

And that was _before_ the fifth one showed up.

The figure that floated down from the sky was the only one that Sonic didn't recognize, and as with any new enemy, Sonic immediately felt compelled to make fun of him. There were about a dozen jokes that sprang to mind in sight of his overly elaborate mask, unruly white hair, and his overly elegant and serious disposition. (The red stone that looked embedded on his chest was kind of cool, but he could absolutely joke about jewelry or obvious weak spots, assuming that's what it was.)

Unfortunately, given the circumstances, he thought that might be a bit ill-advised.

Instead, he settled for giving the newcomer a knowing smirk, reminding himself that he would get the opportunity to gloat and tease all he wanted once their battle was over. Sure, he was outnumbered five-to-one, (five-to-two, counting Tails) and the upcoming battle was going to be anything but pleasant, but all things considered, he had gotten out of far worse situations before. Whoever this masked guy was, Sonic would find a way to defeat him and everyone else Eggman had assembled. He always did.

Deciding to be the first one to make a move, Sonic broke out into a Boost towards the masked one. At such a close range, nothing could react fast enough to dodge him at his quickest (advisable) speed. So, when he ran forward, he expected to immediately be met with the force of crashing into another living being.

But the impact never came.

Sonic was able to stop himself fast enough to stay within range of everyone, but his mind was riddled with confusion. Turning back towards his enemies told him that his target was merely a few feet away from where he had initially been standing. But how was that possible? No one had ever been fast enough to dodge his Boost at that range!

Unfortunately, Sonic's brief moment of shock was all the time it took for the masked one to unleash a spin kick that made direct contact with Sonic's back, flinging him into a nearby wall. The pain that shot through him was unexpected in both its suddenness and severity, but it was hardly the worst thing he had experienced. He was used to being thrown into walls at this point. He picked himself, feeling strangely more confident now that he knew a little more about his new opponent. (Which basically amounted to "he's crazy fast and kicks really hard," but it was still good to know.)

What he hadn't realized was just how fast this newcomer really was. The second he stood up, he saw the newcomer's mask staring right back at him. Sonic barely had a moment to even acknowledge this fact before he found himself being thrown into the air again and felt several burns spread across him from... were those _lasers?_

 _Okay, so apparently, he can shoot lasers from his hands, too,_ Sonic thought to himself before plummeting himself back onto the ground, just barely missing a strike from Metal Sonic. From the corner of his eye, he could see Tails attempting to fend off Chaos with varying success. But he couldn't focus on Tails right now; he had to deal with dodging the punches Zavok had suddenly started throwing at him.

Delivering a few swift punches and kicks to Zavok in return, he found himself on the run again from Metal Sonic. Shadow, it seemed, still hadn't moved, and as much as Sonic didn't want to hurt him, he was going to take full advantage of his current state while the moment allowed it. He grabbed Shadow's arm and turned to fling him into Metal Sonic.

...Only for Shadow to pick that exact moment to regain mobility, turning Sonic's maneuver against him and throwing Sonic into Metal instead. And Metal didn't waste a single second shooting Sonic with an energy beam of his own. Curling into a ball midair kept him from feeling the full brunt of the blast, and he expected to land a hit on Metal Sonic any moment now.

Instead, Metal just grabbed him mid-spin and shot another laser from his chest plate. There was no avoiding this one.

He couldn't keep himself from letting out a pained yell as his entire torso felt like it was being lit on fire from the blast. He was all too aware of how his body practically screamed at him when he tumbled across the floor from the force of the attack. Meanwhile, Eggman's taunting laugh was echoing a little too clearly in his ears for his liking.

But he dragged himself up once he stopped rolling despite his body's protests, finding himself face-to-face with Shadow once more. His mind was clearing fairly quickly, considering he had just been shot point-blank, which meant he could fully acknowledge the fact that Shadow was actually _looking_ at him. He hadn't made eye contact with anyone all day.

Sonic didn't have time to think about that, though, because his thoughts were promptly interrupted by something that made his stomach twist into a knot.

Tails was screaming.

That alone compelled Sonic to push Shadow to the side and run as fast as he could towards the source of the horrible sound. He had been so caught up in his own battle that he let Tails get overwhelmed, and the image in front of him only worsened the feeling of guilt that was already punching him the gut.

Tails was being enveloped in the same red static as the rest of his foes, his small form generating strange red after images; again, it looked as if he was glitching somehow. Whatever was happening, it was clearly hurting Tails, and the masked one was obviously the one causing it, if his hand firmly held in Tails' direction was any indication.

His eyes wide with desperation, Sonic let out a shout that came from rage more than any pain he was feeling as he balled up his fist and forcefully connected it with the masked one's face. It wasn't enough to knock the mask off, but it definitely sent him flying, which was all he needed to do at the moment.

Tails' screaming stopped, but that did little to comfort him since he collapsed almost immediately after. Sonic was by his side in an instant, lifting the small fox into his arms.

"Tails! Are you okay?!" he yelled, louder than he was meaning to. He breathed a sigh of relief when Tails looked up at him, disoriented and pained but very much alive. Still, they weren't out of danger yet, and the last thing Sonic was about to do was leave Tails anywhere near these five. He immediately started running as fast as he dared away from the fight, hoping that he could make it far away enough to get Tails to safety before the others caught up. He might still have to fight them, but at least his best friend would be out of harm's way. Maybe he could even call for backup.

"Don't worry little bro, I'll get you somewhere safe, you'll be fine—AAGH!"

He was interrupted by a sharp pain in his back. Whatever had shot him had enough power behind it to plunge him forwards into the concrete, losing his grip on Tails as he rolled out in front of him. Grunting in pain, he tried to lift himself up, but the fresh pain in his chest and face was making it difficult. The masked one was a lot faster than he had imagined; even Sonic himself would have needed another few seconds to catch up with something moving as fast as he was.

Could it be that this new enemy was actually _faster_ than him?

If that was the case, then there was no escaping this fight. The odds were being stacked against him more with each passing second, and for the first time in months, Sonic was starting to feel scared that he wouldn't be winning this.

That was when his vision turned red.

He blinked, trying to fight off whatever life-threatening symptom was making his eyes see red, but he quickly realized that it wasn't his eyes that were at fault. His surroundings were enveloped in red, everything glitching slightly as if they had all been affected by the same thing as Shadow and the others on a much larger scale. That was when he noticed that Tails had vanished.

"Tails? Where are you?!" he managed to shout, desperation laced in his voice. Had the enemies taken Tails?! If that was the case, he would never be able to forgive himself until he found him again. He turned towards the masked one, who was surrounded by a strange aura. Shadow, Metal, Zavok, and Chaos were all behind him, but they made no move towards them.

"Pathetic," the masked one uttered, "You really waste far too much energy worrying about other people. Let me remind you who your real problem is right now."

Suddenly, he was burning.

Not from flames, he didn't think; the loud _crack_ that nearly deafened him sounded an awful lot like thunder, so he must have been burning from electricity. Every fiber in his body felt like it was being twisted up and clawed at by the harsh currents that struck him. He couldn't breathe; it was only when the thunder died down that he figured out why. He was screaming, louder and more painfully than he had in ages. Thoughts seemed to evaporate out of his brain. He had no idea how long this was going to last, or how long it already had.

Then, as quickly as it began, it stopped. The world wasn't red anymore. Lightning stopped coursing through his veins. The floor was a lot closer than he remembered it being, so he must have collapsed. But he barely feel the hard floor beneath him. He could breathe again, but it didn't feel like he was getting much air.

He could see his hand laid out in front of him and tried to move it, but managed no more than a twitch that sent pain shooting through his fingers. He felt so depleted. Moving was proving to be impossible. Everything was slowly turning dark as he weakly struggled to keep his eyes open.

The last thoughts that went through his mind as he saw the masked one float down were berating him for being such a fool. If only he had made it to Tails sooner, if he hadn't been so arrogant, if he could have done anything differently…

In the few seconds of consciousness he had left, he heard Tails' voice.

" _Sonic!_ "

Then everything went dark.

* * *

 **Author's Notes: And that was the first chapter! I really hope you all enjoyed it. As you can see, I took a... darker approach to that cutscene, which was really fun to write. You can expect the rest of the story to follow in those footsteps.**

 **Anyway, feel free to leave a review to let me know what you thought of this chapter! Any feedback you give is extremely helpful. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. All characters shown here are property of SEGA.**

 **Author's Notes: This chapter was a struggle, I'll admit. There were so many times where I didn't know where I was going to go next, but I think I really pulled together and wrote something to be proud of. (I spent almost an entire day working to finish it, and I think it paid off!)**

 **I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

There wasn't anything he could do to stop it. He had gotten overwhelmed, the newcomer with the mask had somehow electrocuted him, and he was too weak and exhausted to do anything when Sonic was suddenly surrounded by static. He started calling out Tails' name, asking where he went, but he hadn't moved.

 _I'm right here,_ he responded silently, feeling too drained to form words. _I'm right in front of you. Why can't you see me?_

Every time he tried to move an inch, his pained muscles would scream at him, keeping him glued to the ground. He could only watch as Sonic stood up and turned towards the five who had brought them to this point, screaming in his mind for Sonic to run. He didn't have to stay and fight them, they could escape and find Amy or Knuckles or _someone_ to help them in this fight.

And then Sonic just started _screaming_ , he was screaming in pain from something Tails couldn't see, and no matter how hard he tried, there was nothing he could do but watch in horror. It couldn't have lasted longer than a few seconds, but they seemed to drag out for an eternity. And even when it stopped, everything only got worse. Sonic crumpled to the floor, still breathing but alarmingly still.

He already knew that he couldn't force himself to stay conscious for much longer, but he desperately wanted to see this through. As it was, though, he could only manage to weakly cry out Sonic's name, reaching forward with what little strength he had. That was around the time he drifted in unconsciousness.

When he woke up, Sonic was gone.

And so was everyone else.

Immediately he tried to pull himself up, but did so a little too quickly and ended up right back where he started. He tried a second time, slower now, and managed to bring himself to an unsteady stand. He looked around wildly, trying to find any trace of Sonic, Eggman, _anyone_ that was there what felt like both minutes and days before.

"Sonic!" he yelled, his voice hoarse and pained from the dull ache of his injuries. "Where are you?!" Feeling his heart quicken by the second, he broke out into a run, trying to ignore any pain he was still feeling. Sonic had to be _somewhere;_ he could only hope that he hadn't been taken, hadn't—no, he couldn't think like that, Sonic wouldn't go out without a fight...

The battle from before flashed through his mind. What had that masked foe _done_ to him? His only consolation was that he had managed to lead the civilians to safety before the battle even started.

Suddenly remembering his communicator, he came to a stop. Desperately tapping it multiple times, he tried to get a signal out, but Sonic just wasn't picking up.

"Come on, Sonic, where _are_ you? Answer me..."

* * *

Only a short month beforehand, Knuckles the Echidna had been peacefully relaxing on Angel Island. Everything had seemed right with the world; the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the Master Emerald was safely perched on its pedestal, and Sonic hadn't bothered him in weeks.

Not that he didn't enjoy getting to talk with one of his closest friends, but Sonic could be a bit... much at times, especially for someone like Knuckles. It took a bit of recharging before he was ever ready to interact with people again, even with people he cared about, and Sonic was especially boisterous and draining to be around sometimes. He had been told several times that this was called "being an introvert," but he failed to see the point of such elaborate labels for different kinds of people.

He was just thinking about what kind of havoc must happen on the surface on a regular basis, and how glad he was to be able to avoid it on the serenity of Angel Island, when his thoughts were promptly interrupted by someone yelling.

"Knuckles!" they cried. He immediately jumped up from his relaxed position into a fighting stance, darting his gaze back and forth in an attempt to find the intruder. And find them he did; in the sky. He felt himself relax when he saw who it was.

Flying above was a pale, currently glowing hedgehog with quills that seemed to ignore the laws of gravity, as did the rest of him. It was Silver, an acquaintance of Knuckles'. (He hesitated to call themselves "friends," but they were far from hostile.)

"Silver! I haven't seen you in a while—" he began, but he found himself being cut off.

"Oh, thank goodness! You're still here!" Silver yelled, descending upon Knuckles. He sounded panicked for some reason, but Knuckles couldn't begin to guess why.

"Uh, yeah? I spend most of my time here," he replied, feeling more confused by the second—especially when he remembered exactly _why_ he hadn't seen Silver in so long. "Wait, what are _you_ doing here? I thought you returned to the future after the Time Eater was destroyed?"

"And I did!" Silver confirmed, at eye level with Knuckles now that he had landed. "But not long after I got back, things started... _changing._ It was fairly small at first—compared to what happened later, at least—buildings were suddenly repurposed, others just straight-up disappeared, and—and—" the hedgehog looked like he might start hyperventilating any moment now, his eyes wide and gestures erratic. Knuckles was starting to grow concerned.

"Whoa, whoa. Silver." Knuckles said, gesturing him to tone it down.

"Huh?"

"Silver."

"Yeah."

" _Breathe._ "

"Okay."

With that, Silver took a deep breath, letting it out in a huff that clearly had a lot of stress behind it. Knuckles never spoke with Silver much, so he couldn't be certain if it was normal for him to panic easily or if something was really wrong. From what he heard of his story, though, it sounded like it might be pretty dire. Enough for him to go back in time over it, for sure.

"Now, let's start over. Buildings started disappearing, and then what happened?" Knuckles pressed.

"Alright, so, as I was saying—AHH!" He suddenly let out a yelp and jumped in the air, like something just startled him, and Knuckles instinctively looked behind him to see what Silver was so freaked out by. It was probably the last thing he was expecting to see: ancient echidna structures, towering over the two of them and perfectly intact. But what _really_ got Knuckles panicking was that, scattered in various places around the buildings were _other echidnas_ , fully alive and acting like nothing was wrong.

"This is... Pachacamac's village... from the past..." He said, stunned by what he was looking at.

"Pacha-who, now?" Silver wondered, before suddenly seeming to realize what that meant. "Oh, right, that chief echidna guy! I learned about him from history books!"

He hadn't really been listening to what Silver said. It was all hard to process. Knuckles, along with one extremely secluded clan, was the last of his kind after the series of tragedies that befell the echidnas. So how was this possible?

Then he remembered Silver's strange ability to time travel. He turned to Silver and shook him around a little by the shoulders.

"Silver, did you just time-travel us into the past?!" He demanded.

"What?! No! My powers may do a lot of things when I'm freaked out, but never teleport me through time!" He replied defensively. Knuckles let go of his shoulders and started absentmindedly walking in the village's general direction. He felt a burst of frustration coming on and decided to roll with it.

"Well, then what's going on here, then?!" He yelled, not really expecting an answer. That was when he noticed that the buildings and echidnas occasionally emitted a strange, red glow of sorts. It looked entirely unnatural and he had nothing to really compare it to.

"I don't know, but this is what I came here to find out about!" Silver responded, sounding urgent again. His tone quickly changed to one of alarm, however, when he continued. "Uh, Knuckles! You got something behind you!"

Knuckles, broken from his burst of confusion and frustration, spun around in a defensive position. His mood quickly changed to one of exasperation, however, when he saw what Silver had been freaking out about.

"That's just Chaos. You know, the guardian of the chao? He's pretty harmless. Rare of him to leave the Emerald, though," he added, knowing that Chaos couldn't stray far from the Master Emerald and only seemed to do so when any of the local chao were in trouble.

That was when Chaos punched him.

It wasn't exactly the most painful punch he had ever gotten to the face, but Chaos was also made of water, and water had a way of pushing you around with enough force. So, in the span of a second, Knuckles found himself falling backwards and sputtering profusely, now thoroughly annoyed.

" _Harmless_ , huh?!" Silver sasrcastically remarked, helping to pull Knuckles back on his feet. Knuckles gave him a look.

"I won't deny he has a temper," he grumbled, "but I know how to put him in his place!" With that, he took a swing at Chaos, which collided with a mighty splash. His second punch, however, completely missed its target as Chaos contorted his body to make a wide, empty circle in the center of his body. His moment of unbalance gave Chaos the opportunity to push him back with a wave of water again. Silver took this as an opportunity to step in.

"Hang on, I've got this!" He assured. Knuckles wanted to protest that he had this under control, but the more sensible side of his brain was telling him that it was stupid to deny help when he needed it. He didn't always like that side of his brain.

Silver, his body glowing a bright cyan as it always did when he used his telekinetic powers, took ahold of Chaos right as he was about to attack. "Gotcha!" He exclaimed triumphantly, shaping Chaos into a large ball and keeping him suspended in midair. His victory was short-lived, however, when a small droplet Chaos had left behind on the floor suddenly extended into a whip and slapped Silver aside, breaking his concentration and releasing Chaos from his mind grip.

"That's a new one," Knuckles commented. Silver gave him an annoyed look, which Knuckles decided to ignore. "It looks like we're going to have to work together on this one. Can you get me a shot at his brain?"

"Probably, but you'll have to act fast!" He warned, locking Chaos' movement in place again as his only indicator of when Knuckles should act. Thankfully, he wasted no time making his move, charging towards Chaos with an outstretched fist.

His attack didn't get the chance to collide, however, because Chaos fizzled away the second he got close enough. And so did the ancient echidna village. He couldn't process what was going on and it was starting to drive him nuts.

"Where did Chaos and the village go?! What's going on?!" He yelled, wishing someone would just explain things to him already but beginning to feel like no one was going to.

"I can't say for sure, but it looks like whatever's been affecting my time really _is_ originating from here and now," Silver responded, reminding Knuckles that he still hadn't explained why he was here in the first place.

"You keep mentioning something going on in your time, but what is it? And what made you think to come back here?" Knuckles asked, hoping that maybe he could finally get some answers.

"Oh, right," he began. "Well, you see, I was trying to figure out why all those buildings were suddenly disappearing and being replaced with ruins, but no one seemed to think there was anything strange about it. I was starting to think I going nuts or something, but then _people_ started disappearing, too!" Knuckles felt his eyes widen in shock at that, but he didn't interrupt.

"Sometimes, they would vanish right before my eyes, even as they were talking..." He was getting that look in his eyes again, like he was recalling some kind of horrible nightmare. He even started floating again, which he could only assume was one of those things Silver mentioned his powers did when he was scared. Hearing the details of his story, Knuckles couldn't really blame him. "And then—I would get these flashes," he continued, "flashes of everything around me in ruins, the few buildings that were standing being built in Eggman's name."

"Eggman?!" Knuckles couldn't help but exclaim. "You mean to say that in these... flashes, you saw a world where Eggman had taken over?!"

"Yes! And then they stopped being _just_ flashes, Knuckles!" Silver abruptly took Knuckles by the shoulders, desperation painfully apparent in his eyes. "The world around me just got _stuck_ that way! There was barely anyone left! There wasn't anyone I could go to for help, but..." He took another deep breath and let go of Knuckles before continuing.

"The statues were of Eggman, which meant that whatever was messing with the world had to be starting in this era. You seemed like the resident expert on the supernatural, guarding the Master Emerald and all, so I figured that if I was going to ask anyone for help, it would be you. I know we're not exactly the closest of friends, but—"

"Don't worry about that," Knuckles interjected. "We don't have to be friends for me to help you. From what you're saying, this is going to affect _all_ of us. I don't know if my "supernatural knowledge" is going to be much help on its own, though..."

"The Chaotix!" Silver suddenly exclaimed. "They're a detective agency! Maybe they can help us!"

"Good thinking!" He agreed. "Let's go find them right away!"

With that, the two took flight away from Angel Island and down towards the surface.

* * *

It had been seven months since Silver came to the past, and six months since Sonic had vanished after his encounter with Eggman's latest ally. In that time, the visions Silver had described were becoming reality. Slowly but surely, Eggman launched enough successful attacks on the population to achieve what he had long sought after: complete world domination.

He had been met with resistance, of course; but even with so many powerful individuals opposing him, they had been overwhelmed by the sheer power of Eggman's robots and the mysterious, masked figure that seemed to show up almost everywhere there was an attack.

Everything had been lost, save for a few secluded areas that Eggman hadn't bothered with destroying yet. During his many attacks, the people who had fought back had been organized into an official resistance, led by Amy Rose herself. The Resistance was smaller than it used to be, but its founding members were still intact: aside from Amy, the Resistance was comprised of Knuckles, Tails, Silver, Espio, Vector, Charmy, and Rouge, along with anyone else who was brave enough to join.

Currently, all of the founding members (save for Knuckles and Rouge, who were both elsewhere with their separate duties) were gathered in a single room, preparing for when they had to make their next move.

Vector, the leader of the Chaotix Detective Agency, entered the room through one of the sliding doors. He was shaking his head in disappointment, having found very little to smile about on the mission he had been on just a few moments earlier.

"Eggman's army is unstoppable!" He found himself saying. "The people are quickly losing hope and giving in to despair. Sonic was the one everyone looked up to, and without him..."

"Despair is a luxury we don't have!" Silver snapped, sounding harsher than he was intending. "I've already _seen_ how this will all go down if we don't stop it, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just _give up!_ "

"Silver, calm yourself," Espio prompted. "They're frightened. Not everyone has your absurd willpower, you know."

"It's not absurd!" he protested. He seemed to deflate soon after, his eyes downtrodden. "But you're right, as usual. I can't expect everyone to risk their lives in a war this dangerous. They're not prepared."

"Isn't that the whole reason we provide basic weapons training?" Tails pointed out, typing away at the laptop that rested on the table. His expression was dark, and he hadn't looked up from the computer screen in at least five minutes. "Those Wisps haven't been helping power our new weapons for nothing, you know. We have plenty to go around."

"I think he meant emotionally, Tails," Amy suggested. "And we of all people should understand how inspiring Sonic was and how... how hard it is to have him disappear." Her tone and expression grew increasingly saddened, breaking her attempt at eye contact with Tails. Any mention of Sonic only seemed to make things worse, for herself and others.

"Stop making it sound like he's never coming back." Tails replied, sounding colder than anyone would have imagined six months ago.

"That's not what I meant, Tails," Amy said earnestly, "I've chosen to believe that Sonic's still alive, but the civilians don't have that kind of faith."

" _Faith_ isn't going to get us anywhere, Amy!" Tails suddenly yelled, whipping his head around to look at Amy head-on. "Believing that he's alive isn't enough anymore! Sonic isn't going to come back unless we find him, which for some reason, no one seems to be doing!"

"You _know_ why we can't search for him!" Amy shouted back. "We barely have enough people to keep Eggman from taking what we have left, let alone enough to organize a search party!"

"Stop it, guys!" Charmy interrupted, looking distressed by the tension in the air. "You two are such good friends, this isn't the time to fight with each other!"

Tails seemed to back down. His head was hanging and his face showed all kinds of anguish. He stole an apologetic look at Amy.

"I know," he said quietly. "I'm sorry, Amy. I shouldn't have lashed out at you. It's just..."

"You're upset. I understand. And I'm sorry, too," she responded, feeling as guilty as Tails about being so harsh. The last six months hadn't been easy, but that was no reason to start turning against each other.

"So," Charmy resumed awkwardly, "aren't we supposed to be getting a new recruit today?"

"Yes," Silver replied, looking relieved that the tension was being broken. "A survivor from the city, right?"

"Here, I'll access the file," Tails offered, prompting everyone to turn their attention to the computer's screen, which was being displayed in a larger size on the wall. On it was the photo ID of a red wolf, no older than Silver and sporting a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. He had an awkward smile and seemed to be holding up his glasses by the side when the picture was taken. On the side was information regarding his age, occupation ("student," unsurprisingly), background and other such information. This, of course, included his name, which was apparently "Gadget the Wolf." Nothing seemed to indicate he was any different from the average civilian, aside from the fact that he was apparently in possession of a grappling hook of sorts.

Tails had just closed out the file when one of the doors opened and Knuckles entered. He looked about as cheerful as everyone else in the room, but it was obvious he had missed out on the brief outburst between Tails and Amy.

"Hey, everyone. Glad to see you're all still alive," came his graceful opening comment. "Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of good news to bring. Eggman's forces have chewed through our defenses at Green Hill, and the resistance in the city is reporting that whoever it is that finished Sonic..." He quickly realized his error as everyone became increasingly downcast at the mention of Sonic's name. He, too, found himself breaking eye contact with the rest of the group. "Sorry. I'm still not used to saying that."

He turned away from the group as he continued. "Whoever it is has got them all running in fear. All except this brave kid," he motioned towards the door, which opened to reveal the wolf from the file, "who survived the battle and made it here in one piece. Meet our newest recruit!"

The recruit in question looked a bit overwhelmed, which Knuckles decided to remedy by giving him an encouraging slap on the back. He must have hit a bit too hard, however, because Gadget found himself toppling forward and trying to regain his balance.

"Hmm. Doesn't look like much," Charmy commented as he approached the newcomer.

"Neither do you, Charmy, but I still find a use for your pointy butt!" Knuckles teased in response. Charmy just chuckled and felt relieved at the new, far less depressing atmosphere. Knuckles picked up a red, oddly-shaped weapon off of the table and handed it to Gadget. "Here, kid, take this. We're depending on you," he added.

"What is it?" Gadget asked. He hadn't seen anything like it before. Tails, the one responsible for designing the weapon in question, took it upon himself to explain it.

"That's a Wispon," he answered. "They're a series of weapons that are powered by the Hyper-Go-On energy from the Wisps who volunteered for our cause."

Gadget had to admit, that sounded pretty cool.

"Interesting," he muttered to himself, pointing the Wispon away from the group in attempt to figure out how to hold it. "So, how do I get it to—WHOA!" Without warning, flames suddenly burst from the opposite end of the weapon and he found himself struggling to keep it steady. " _How do I turn it off?!_ " he yelled, wondering how he hadn't set anything on fire yet. That was when he realized that the flames were shrouded in a cyan glow, courtesy of Silver's telekinesis. He was holding the flames in place.

"Let go of the trigger!" Tails yelled in response like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Since Gadget couldn't even tell what part of flamethrower he had pulled to ignite it, he simply opted for dropping it on the floor.

There were a few sighs going around the room, and Gadget only chuckled awkwardly in response, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Definitely going to need training," Espio commented.

* * *

Operating a Wispon, as Gadget soon discovered, was a lot simpler than he thought it was going to be. There was the trigger, which his finger comfortably rested on, and there was a button on the side that activated a small explosion of sorts that was supposed to help him gain elevation. Yes, the Wispon was easy to navigate once he knew where everything on it was. The problem was everything _else_.

The flamethrower, he could handle. It was impressively straightforward. But the second he pressed the side-button, he was launched backwards with incredible force and smacked into a wall. Espio, who had taken it upon himself to train Gadget, calmly reminded him that he was supposed to aim the weapon _downwards_ , so he would end up in the air instead.

Grumbling, he pulled himself up and did as he was instructed, only to find himself careening through the air. Unable to keep a grip on the Wispon, he had to be caught by Espio before he landed on the hard pavement. His training had been going on for hours, and it looked like it was going be another several before he figured this out. That was when Amy entered the room.

"How's the training going?" She asked, and Gadget immediately felt himself tense up. The leader of the Resistance, one of the people he had looked up to over the years, was checking on him. And he didn't even have any real progress to report!

"It's going smoothly so far. The new recruit has effectively figured out the mechanisms of the Wispon, and he has all but mastered the flamethrower." Espio reported, causing Gadget to look at him in disbelief. Sure, he knew what the triggers _did_ , but he was hardly proficient. He had just been blasting himself into walls a minute earlier!

"I wouldn't say _mastered_ ," he remarked, "but I think I've got the hang of it."

That last part was a bit of a lie, as he had only gotten the hang of one half of the Wispon's functions, but he wasn't about to make himself look incompetent in front of his commander.

"That's good to hear, because I have a mission for you two," Amy announced. Immediately, he felt he had been caught off-guard. There was no way he was ready for a mission as he was, but at the same time, he had joined the Resistance for a reason. He wasn't about to back out of a mission once it was offered to him.

"What do you need us to do?" Espio asked.

"Rouge still hasn't returned from her recon mission," Amy explained, a hint of worry in her voice. "She hasn't contacted us in too long. I need you two to check out the area around the Chemical Plant where she was stationed to see if it's safe to send more people in after her. Espio, you can get in undetected, and Gadget here can cover for you in case things get dangerous. Do you think you can handle that?"

"Of course," Espio confirmed. "We'll get on it right away."

* * *

 _Okay, Gadget_ , he thought to himself, _you can do this. You just have to patrol the perimeter and blow up anything that attacks you until Espio gets back._

The Chemical plant was somewhat bleak, but that was hardly surprising. Gadget had yet to encounter any problems on his patrol—other than his own nerves, of course. He almost wished something would show up just so he could release some of his horribly pent-up stress, but he knew that was stupid.

And perhaps just _because_ of how stupid it was, the universe decided to supply him with two surveillance drones that immediately started blaring alarms. _There goes the recon mission_ , he thought bitterly, aiming his Wispon at the drones and setting them ablaze. About two seconds afterwards, he heard Espio's voice in his intercom.

 _"What happened?"_ He asked, but there was an edge to his voice that told him that he was not happy in the slightest.

"I've been spotted!" Gadget exclaimed, although he felt that should have been obvious.

 _"Alright, stay calm. We might be able to make this mission count for something if we work together to clear a path to find Rouge, but you'll have to rendezvous with me first. Do you think you can handle that?"_

His first instinct was to shrug helplessly, but he was preoccupied with blowing up the swarm of robots that had started closing in on him, and Espio wouldn't have been able to see him, anyways. So instead, he had to respond with words.

"I'll do my best!" was all he was willing to offer in response. He made a break for the nearest open path he could find, holding down the trigger with a firm grip. He may as well give Eggman as much trouble as he could while he was there, as payback for everything he had ruined. That thought above all others fueled him as he rushed forward, swinging on anything he could get his custom grappling hook to latch onto, burning anything he came across.

Eventually, he came across a set of rails. He couldn't be sure what their purpose was, but he hadn't spent a whole month practicing to grind on rails to impress his friend when he was eight years old for nothing. He grinded across and flipped between the rails with ease, the real concern cropping up when he came across a large chasm. There wasn't anything in sight that he could grapple onto, and he was sliding too fast on the rails to consider any other options.

Which meant he had to choose the option that was most likely to get him killed: he had to launch across using the Wispon.

He jumped as high as he could and, holding onto the Wispon as tightly as he could, smashed the side-button. Immediately he was sent flying, performing several out-of-control front flips in the process. He kept pushing the button, though, and even though he was screaming in panic the whole way, he eventually made it across the gap. He also hit a wall and landed on solid ground. It hurt, a _lot_ , but at least he wasn't falling hundreds of feet to his death. That had to count for something, right?

Then he realized that the floor he had landed on was moving. It didn't take long for him to figure out why: he had landed on a train. A train that was currently heading for a tunnel that Gadget had no chance of fitting into whatsoever. He may as well have been riding towards a wall.

Desperate for a solution, he looked around wildly before spotting a metal beam above him. With any luck, he would be able to grapple onto it and lift himself out of danger.

When his hastily made plan actually worked, he was tempted to let out a shout of victory. That temptation quickly diminished when he looked to his left and saw another train charging towards him. In a burst of adrenaline, he launched his grappling hook in front of him and was shocked when it actually latched onto something. He could have sworn he was experiencing some kind of whiplash when he was harshly swung away from the train, avoiding being slammed into oblivion by mere inches.

He hit the ground, rolling a couple times before sliding to a stop. Groaning from the pain of being thrown against solid metal at least four times in succession, he managed to pull himself up. He could feel himself shaking from the after-effects of getting so close to his own demise; a feeling that was getting far too familiar for his liking.

What was he even doing here? He jeopardized a mission by getting caught so easily, nearly got killed by two different trains, and he barely had a solid grasp on his own weapon. He wasn't helping anyone at this point. But there was no point in turning back now; he owed it to Espio to at least try to get him to safety. Although at this point, he wasn't sure he would be able to be of any use.

He pushed forward, destroying the remaining robots in his path and struggling to keep his balance on the next set of rails he came across. He was starting to think that his own nerves were going to be the death of him.

Thankfully, it wasn't long until he met up with Espio.

"Espio! We have to get out of here!" was what he decided to open up the conversation with. He couldn't of a place he would want to be any less than where he was right now.

"Agreed. But I don't have the best news, I'm afraid," Espio began, clearly unhappy and somewhat concerned with what he was about to say. "I searched all over the facility. Rouge wasn't anywhere to be found."

* * *

 _He woke up to a bright light shining in his eyes. He quickly shut his eyes again to try to block it out, but it seemed to burn through either way. It took him a few moments to gather where he was, or more specifically, what he was in. The walls were extremely closed in, curved, and from what little he could see, transparent. He felt like he was floating, which made sense once it clicked; he was suspended in a capsule, with bright white lights from the surrounding room shining all around him, like a bunch of spotlights._

 _"I see you're awake," an annoyingly familiar voice said. Sonic didn't even have to see him to recognize who it was._

 _"Eggman. You sure know how to make your guests feel_ welcome, _" he snapped. His sarcasm was falling on a particularly dry note, feeling more agitated than humorous at the moment. "What am I, the star of your own little personal party?"_

 _"As a matter of fact, yes," Eggman sneered. "I even whipped up a nice little present for you. Do you like it?"_

 _"I can barely see three feet in front of me with all your stupid spotlights, genius," he retorted, before suddenly remembering the details of the events leading up to this point. Tails had been injured and suddenly disappeared. That was enough to send him into panic mode, but he tried to keep it cool in front of his arch nemesis. "Quit playing around and tell me what you've done with Tails!" he demanded._

" _You're not in a position to be making those kinds of demands, hedgehog!" Eggman yelled, taking out his sudden anger on one of the spotlights with a firm sideways punch. That gave Sonic just enough visibility to make out Eggman properly, who was currently trying to compose himself. He also seemed to be holding a red gemstone in his other hand, but it didn't look like a Chaos Emerald, so he wasn't too concerned._

 _Eggman began stroking his mustache as he continued. "But in light of what I'm about to do, I'll give you the small consolation of knowing that your fox friend is perfectly safe… for now," he added cryptically. That did not sit well with Sonic at all. Just because Tails was allegedly "safe" didn't mean that he hadn't been captured along with him, and if that was the case, his first priority was to rescue him. Right after he rescued himself, of course; he couldn't do much from the inside of a capsule._

 _But alas, in traditional Eggman fashion, he wasn't quite done talking yet. And as much as Sonic prided himself on being able to tune out his enemies, it was starting to make it really difficult for him to plot his escape route._

" _You, however, are going to be subject to a few tests, first," he continued. That caught Sonic's attention. But again, there was no way he was going to show his ever-growing anxieties to Eggman of all people, so his brain quickly scrambled to make a retort, instead._

" _And here I thought you were just_ _gonna_ _launch me into space again." It might not have been the best response, but it served its purpose. It did little to calm his own nerves, though, bringing back the frightening memory of being ejected into the void, desperately thinking of ways to avoid his quickly-approaching doom. Which, for all intents and purposes, was exactly what he was doing now._

 _"A tempting concept, I'll grant you that," Eggman replied, "but not today. I have something far more important to use you for." He approached Sonic and held out the gem he was carrying. Sonic was beginning to think he should just break the glass now, but reconsidered it. Eggman was clearly about to explain at least a part of his plan, and that information could prove valuable once he got back._

 _"This little ruby," he continued, "contains enough power to rival that of the Chaos Emeralds." Sonic to suppress a gasp, but failed. His eyes widened in shock. The Chaos Emeralds were the most powerful known objects in the universe. This couldn't be good._

 _"But there's a setback; it's full power can only be wielded by someone that's inherently compatible with it. Now, I can't help but wonder..." Eggman looked directly into Sonic's eyes before finishing, "...if_ you're _one of those people. Let's find out, shall we?"_

 _Sonic took that as his cue to get out. He placed his hands on the back of the capsule to give himself some support as he ferociously kicked the walls that surrounded him. He felt his panic resurface when he realized that he wasn't even putting a dent in it. His kicks could crush solid metal; what was this thing_ made _out of?!_

 _Instead, he tried curling into a ball and rocketing around the capsule with as much force as he could muster in such a small space, but ended up the same results. If he wasn't afraid before, he certainly was now. He could hear Eggman laughing maniacally at his attempts._

 _"Don't waste your energy, hedgehog! You're going to need as much as you can get for what's coming next!" He gloated, obviously planning to build up this one moment as much as possible. Sonic stopped bouncing against the walls of the capsule and gave Eggman a glare._

 _All sorts of possible scenarios were running through his head as he tried to guess what Eggman was about to do, and he couldn't help but be reminded of the last time he was in the villain's clutches; suffice it to say that being mutated into a monster was far less painful than what had preceded it. The main difference was that this time, he had no advantage over his enemy prior to getting captured._

 _Placing the ruby in a small compartment held up by a short pillar that rose up near the capsule, Eggman flashed the most dangerous of grins at Sonic, who was unable to keep the fear out of his eyes even as he tried to keep a straight face. That was when Eggman pressed a button near the compartment._

 _And suddenly, there was a rapid electronic noise that filled his ears and a searing pain that flooded his senses. What Sonic couldn't have known was that this sound would be all he heard for the next several days, along with the progressively weakened sounds of his own screams._

* * *

 **Author's Notes: So things are finally picking up! I know Classic Sonic is nowhere to be seen in this chapter, but rest assured! He will show up in the next chapter!  
**

 **Feel free to leave a review to let me know what you think! You can say what you liked about the chapter, what you think could use some work, or even if you just want to leave a short reaction or comment, any feedback is welcome!**


End file.
